Our Son is looking at the option of a US College Scholarship. Its quite a minefield for us as UK based parents so we are reaching out here to seek some help and guidance from fellow parents. I have some questions that it would be great to get some thoughts
- We are thinking about using a recruiting agent. Does anyone have advice or guidance on these folks?
- What are the fees that we should plan for ourselves. Realistically, if he gets a full scholarship at a D1 school what other costs should we plan to cover as his parents?
- Why are International Students recruited in the US Colleges?
- What are the things that a coach or a recruiter will not tell you about Scholarship offers?
Really appreciative of any help we can get.
US school recruit aboard because they perceive there to be a better pool out there. Some countries don’t insist on academics along with athletic ones. Other countries support sports for their young people better than the US. So many students in the US who could be as good can’t get the training that international students are able to access. I don’t think state universities should be allowed to give up slots to international students.
What is your rationale?
In the meantime, to the OP:
Full scholarships cover tuition, room and board. In a few cases there may be a stipend, you should ask about that. Other costs are yours
I am lukewarm about agents. Don’t know if the international factor would make them more useful.
Most coaches try to recruit the best players regardless of nationality. That is why youngsters from outside the US are often recruited.
Scholarship agreements are in writing. There is no funny stuff when it is time for the ink to hit the paper. The NCAA and most schools also provide a lot of information on their websites. So you are able to perform your own due diligence very well
I don’t know how basketball specifically works, but like fenwaypark I’m generally lukewarm on recruiting services, especially ones that cost a lot of money. In general I think coaches prefer to work directly with recruits, though that’s more of a challenge for you with distance and time zones.
Are there any local coaches you know that have contacts with US college coaches? If so that could be helpful in opening doors and in giving the coaches insight into your son’s skill level.
Absolutely!
If OP forks over some money for an agent, it should designated for advisory services only. Your son should be the one interacting with coaches, not the agent.
Yes, all the contact will be direct. Essential I think. I think it is about exposure, we have a great coach who is in contact with a few schools but the network is not as wide as the recruiters. The fee is $800…this seams reasonable for what they will do ( introduce my sons profile, videos and make a recommendation to their network)
“I don’t think state universities should be allowed to give up slots to international students.”
What is my rationale? so many reasons!
^^ should they give a scholarship to OOS students, which all do? State A gets very little benefit to giving a State B student a scholarship, no more than it would get from giving it to an international student (benefits like bringing good students, athletes, diversity to the school), so should State A limit all scholarships to only instate students?
At my daughter’s school, a small private school, about 1/3 of the students are internationals, and many of them are athletes. Not sure about basketball, but members of the golf, soccer, crew, baseball teams are internationals and many of them have athletic scholarships. I think it does benefit the student body. The school has an international, diverse feel to it.
^^I generally subscribe to this line of thinking.
I recall a poster somewhere on the site said that State schools should not offer athletic scholarships to internationals because the internationals do not pay State tax. This poster may even have been lostaccount. As alluded to, it would follow from this logic that State schools shouldn’t award athletic scholarships to students from other states either.
Extending the logic, maybe people from out of state and overseas should not be allowed to use roads paid for by State taxes.
Anyway, for those who agree with lostaccount—better than spending time here----call your State Governor. This is not an NCAA issue. You can affect change, if you think you need it, at the ballot box.
As for the OP’s issue, I think what bluewater and I are saying is that we are lukewarm about using an agent to find schools to contact (getting exposure) but we think the actual contact–including the sending of videos and other material–should be by the recruit himself.
As to the contact all coming from the student, I sort of disagree with that. My daughter was handling all discussions with coaches about the sport, how she’d fit in, etc. At schools that didn’t include me in the discussions, I couldn’t really help her work through the pros and cons very well. I also found it hard to deal with some coaches who would only deal with DD for things like visits. I was arranging the transportation (and paying for it) and didn’t want DD to miss too much school or her own games, and even though my daughter is a seasoned traveler, she really didn’t know what airports to use, how to book hotel rooms, how much time was needed. I don’t think my dealing with a coach over these things reflected on her playing ability or maturity.
When it came to the final school, she just asked me to work out the details, which were mostly financial. I think the coach was happy, and I know I was, to just discuss it directly without having to play the telephone game with my daughter in the middle. Things sure were a lot easier.
We are talking about agents in this thread
But whether all contact should come from the student. I don’t think agents will help that much, but I don’t think most coaches will just ignore them either and require all contact to come from the student only.
In this case, since it is so late in the process for 2016, an agent may be the only hope and may suggest the student wait a year or at least that the student will have a lot more choices by waiting a year. The family is willing to spend the $800, which might very well lead to a full scholarship worth $70k per year.
It is not clear from the original post, but I get the impression the student is not 2016. Maybe OP can clarify.
Regardless, I don’t see why an agent is ever the “only hope”.
Here is where I am coming from:
- I have had experience with an agent in a potential transfer situation. Not basketball. Just one data point, so really not dispositive. General impression was that coaches looked upon dealing with an agent as an additional layer of work that was not worth the effort--unless the recruit is a superstar, in which case an agent would probably not be necessary in the first place. In a couple of cases responses came after the recruit got in touch directly, not when the agent first contacted.
- I have heard from a couple of current D1 athletes about their coaches' comments relating to recruits who had agents. In a nutshell, the sentiment expressed was "who do they think they are", and "I want to deal with the kid". Neither of these cases involved basketball or international recruits. Don't know if either of those factors might make a difference.
Can an agent’s fee of $800 turn into a lottery ticket equal to a full scholy? Of course. Can agents who take the lead in making contact with coaches turn some coaches off? Yes to that too.
Using an agent as a resource for information=zero risk of adverse coach reaction. Using an agent to contact coaches=possible adverse coach reaction. Each person needs to decide based on personal levels of risk tolerance, I think.
The OP has two threads going. Parent said the student is a senior and graduating, but also willing to wait a year before college.